Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
Worship call 1110 Up on the Cross - 2024/07/15
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to "Worship Call" with Bible teacher Buzz Laubec. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's Word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now, here's today's message. Isaiah 53, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, for he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of a parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was a spyser for second of men, a man of sorrows, and a queen with grief, and like one from whom men hid their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs, he himself bore in our sorrows he carried, yet we himself esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our niquities, he was chased for our well-being, fell upon him, and by his scouraging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. He was oppressed, and is afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter like a sheep that is silent before the shears, so he did not open his mouth. By opposition and judgment, he was taken away, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. This is the second day of the week in God's created order, the 15th day of the seventh month, 2000, 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. That is turned to our Lord and thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for another day. Thank you for another opportunity. Your mercies are renewed each and every day. Open up our hearts this morning to the study of your word once again. Let us feed upon him. Let us encourage us. Let us lift up our hearts to know that our Savior lives, and these things we pray in Christ's name. Amen. And welcome to another week, and here we go. I'm glad you're with us. So it was noon where we are at right now. It was noon, and Jesus was already on the cross for three hours. Man had done his worst. Man had between the Roman guards and the beatings and the awkings and the insults, and all that came upon the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes we, as a kid, I didn't know, and I always felt sorry for Jesus and that because every year around Easter they would read depictions on TV of the crucifixion. Mel Gibson had his passion, but yet it leaves you with the why. Why did he have to do it? And he did it for you and I. And what could not be depicted was what happened in that darkness. For when noon came, darkness fell upon Galgotha on the place of the skull, and it was a darkness that a piercing darkness said it bailed what was taking place. And what was taking place was the full of, in part, was the full extent of the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, our judgment of God, his full wrath against sin, that which was bottled up from the beginning of the sin when it came upon mankind, was now being released upon a son. Throughout the ages there were times when that judgment came down, and man was not permitted to look upon that judgment. When it came to the, when it came to the judgment on the ark, or the flood, they were sealed within that ark on a Passover, they were sealed within their homes, they were not allowed to look out. And he, when that angel led, or when that angel led a lot out from our son, he gave him the instructions, do not look back, but here it was that Jesus was in that darkness, and he was suffering the full wrath of God's punishment. Now come in a day that those who without salvation, without atonement, without a covering, will have to face and a great and terrible day of the Lord, and it will be a great and terrible day of the Lord, when the wrath of God will come out against the wicked, and they will see what Jesus saw in that darkness. So for three hours, the forces of darkness was pounding away at the Lord, and as the sins of the world to include your sins and my sins, listen, we were represented there. Our sins were represented and poured out upon Jesus on the cross, when all sins, past, present, future, since of the world, and we are part of that world. And he, when he hung upon that cross, he thought of us personally, he thought about you, he thought about me, as we were represented there, our sins were being laid upon him, and were being judged. Why? Because where there is a, where God is perfect justice, and where there is a violation of God's law, there must be a retribution. There must be punishment, and that punishment didn't come down to the whole human race, or not yet, but it came down upon the Son who took our place upon that cross, that the door might be open, that we might walk through. So for three hours in that darkness, or it's a pounding away upon the Lord, the sins of the world, and that cup that Jesus so fervently prayed for, Father, if it's your will, let this cup pass from me. He was now, that cup was now being passed to him. Matthew 27, 46. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, la ma sapostini, that is my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? And some of those who are standing there, when they heard it, began saying, the man is calling for Elijah. When Elijah comes, remember, Elijah has to come before the great and terrible day of the Lord, and he has to come, or as you worry, he came before that, but he would become for the kingdom. So they're saying, well, he's calling for the establishment of the kingdom, he's calling for the kingdom to come at this point, and that's what they're thinking. So while the writers through inspiration gives us each, their account, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they give us the account of what they had witnessed, like John witnessed it, he was there, or second hand information, but what they wrote down was through inspiration. So that you have four different accounts, but there is a fifth account, the account of the Hebrew Scriptures, the account of the Psalmist, who takes us on a personal, and that writer, the Psalmist, David, takes us right to the cross, right up there where Jesus was done. Let's go to Psalm 22 verse 1, let's look at this. The Psalmist, the Psalm was written around a thousand years prior to crucifixion. crucifixion at this point was not even thought of, and now you have a prophetic insight of what is going on, what's specifically going on, up there on the cross. And we just read in Matthew 27, "My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me?" This is a bookmark. This is a bookmark to take us elsewhere into the Bible, and this bookmark opens up to Psalm 22. Psalm 22 begins, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from the deliverance are the words of my groaning." No, he wasn't delivered. He was offered up as a sacrifice. Jesus is alone. The closer he had gotten to the cross, the more alone he was until he was completely alone upon that cross. See, sin caused a barrier between the center and God. There's a chasm that cannot be crossed. God is a righteous God, and cannot do anything with that, which is unrighteous. And so at this point, Jesus has become sinned for us, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God and him. And a righteous God, again, cannot have any relationship with that which unrighteous, and that which Jesus was facing was a full extent of God's law of fury, as if a fury, if you will, of God. Something that cannot be imagined, but all of a sudden it's released upon this one man, our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 10 1 says, "Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you stand off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" Psalm 22 3, "Yet you are holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel, and you are fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them. To you, they cried out, and they were delivered. The trust, the faithfulness, at first he directs in his torment and his suffering. He also humbles himself while he doesn't lash out with anger and hatred." Remember Job when he was going through so much, and he began to question the love of God. And he was wrong in doing so, but our Lord demonstrated complete humility even under suffering, remembering who and what God is. And this is where when we are suffering, and we will never suffer as much as Jesus suffered upon the cross. At all times he keeps his mind focused upon who and what God is. God may have abandoned him. As Job said, Job said, "Though he slay me, I will continue to trust in him." And this is what Jesus is doing. Though he is being slayed, though he is being crushed, he nevertheless continues to trust in the Lord. You have been faithful, he's saying, "You have been faithful before, and you will be faithful again." Yet, you are holy. Oh, you who are thrown upon the praises of Israel, and you are fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them. To you, they cried out and were delivered. And then, in light of who and what God is, he brings it back to who and what his humble state. But I am a worm and not a man. He's less of a man. He is taken down to the lowest of the lowest. A reproach of men and despised by people. All who see me sneer at me, and they separate with lips and they wag their heads and say, "Commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him." Does that sound familiar, by the way? Well, Matthew 27.41. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes and the elders, were mocking him and saying, "He saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." That is the Pharisees there. Verse 43, "He trusts in God. Let God rescue him. Now, if he delights in him, for he said, "I am the son of God." Isaiah 49.1. Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, you people from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, and from the body of my mother, he named me. This is the son of God. He is the one who has been called. He has been born. He has been put it this way. By Jewish custom, who names the children? But the father who belongs to him, and who named Jesus, it was Jesus. So, it was his son, and he was called the son. He calls himself the son of God. The Pharisees were right. He called himself because he is. Jesus was named by God. Psalm 22, 11. "Be not far from me." Let me see if we miss anything there. We jumped a little bit on there. Oh, yeah, there we go. So, okay, yet you are he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust upon my mother's breast. Upon you, I was cast from birth, and you have been my God from my mother's womb. He had trusted the Lord from the very beginning, from the very beginning. Psalm 10, Psalm 10 said, "A body you have prepared for me to do your will." Isaiah 50 tells us that he would be waking up morning by morning to be taught the word of God. So, from the beginning, from the very beginning, he recognizes that he is the son of God. "Be not far from me." You're my father. And prayer is also Jesus is demonstrating when we are suffering ourselves. He's demonstrating our prayer. And when we are in whatever we're going through our anguish, our pain, our suffering, we must not lose fact of who God is. There are those who get mad at God. There is no those who claim that God is unjust. And there are those that walk away from God because of their pain and their suffering and prolong whatever we're going through and the valley that we're suffering through. Jesus demonstrates that, and no one had suffered to the extent that he suffered, that we must keep our eye on who and what God is. This is why, in good times, we must continue to study God's word. We must know who we put our trust in before we come into that storm. We must know who our God is. Some of the most important doctrine. The most important doctrine we can learn is the theology proper, the attributes of God. And all that God is the study of God and knowing God and focusing upon God. More so than just the doctrine, but recognizing that it is the person of God in whom we love and we worship and knowing that he is faithful. And it's the doctrine, it's the theology, it's those scripture that line upon line, precept upon free, doctrine upon doctrine, leaning everything that we can to learn about our God in his way. And Jesus knew his God and he demonstrates and the most to the furthest degree, how we should handle suffering ourselves. Be not far from me for troubles near. For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashaan haven't circled me or Bashaan or Basshan, however it's pronounced, but strong bulls of Bashaan haven't circled me. They opened their mouth at me as ravaging and a roaring line. What's going on here? What's these bulls of Bashaan? Remember that Bashaan is the area where Mount Herman is. The Mount Herman is really the Mount Olympus of the demon gods. The Mount Herman is believed to be the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus had gone up and transfigured himself to the glory of God in the presence of Peter, James and John. And it's said by Michael Heiser that he was picking a fight. He was outside the land, outside of Israel. So these are demons and maybe we could do your home market, do a little more study, but bulls remember you go all the way back to Egypt when they crafted a God when they were out and when they were brought out into the land. Moses was up in the mountains and they took their gold and crafted an idol. What was it? It was a cap. We also know that Baal is a bull, not a cow bull, where they sacrificed their children too. So there's much more to this. The bulls of Bashaan is the demonic realm. The darkness is over Gagoth and these out of two things, these demons were attacking Jesus upon the cross, two things. First of all, just abstract hatred. You see now the secular world, the secular world, the human world, they already had their time against the Lord. Now it's the spiritual world, the demonic and beyond our imagination, what they were doing in that darkness against the Lord. And because of two things, first of all, abstract hatred. And the other one is desperation because if Jesus accomplished his mission and he will, their fate will be doomed. So they're doing everything to destroy Jesus even on that cross. So man is doing his best to destroy Jesus, the demonic world is doing their best to destroy Jesus. Verse 14, "I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint." Again, a thousand years before a thousand years before the crucifixion was even invented. And here it is that all my bones are out of joint as Jesus is hanging there upon the cross, the sockets, the arms are becoming separated and pulled out of their sockets as he hung upon the cross. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like, let me say it was something else, poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is melted within me. This is, he's also going to, this is emotional. This is emotional when it talks about the heart, the melting of the heart. It talks about emotional. He's not only going through physical strain, but he's going through emotional strain. Job 2316 talks about it, "It is God that has made my heart faint, and the Almighty who has dismayed me." And then Nehem, 210, "She is emptied." Yes, she is desolate and waste. Hearts are melting and knees are knocking. Also, anguish is in the whole body and all their faces are grown pale. We also saw, go back to Rahab. When Rahab was talking to his spies, he was talking about how their hearts melted. So here it is that Jesus not only was going through physical strain, but he was also going through emotional strain. The absence from the Father, there is no comfort whatsoever. My strength is dried up like a posh, posh whore. There's nothing, there's nothing within his body to give comfort. And my tongue cleaves to my jaw. He's dehydrated. He's dehydrated itself to a maximum dehydration. There is great pain in that as well. And my tongue cleaves to my jaw, and you lay me in the dust of death. For the dogs have surrounded me. The dog is a derogatory term against the Romans. This is what the Jews call them. Dogs are unclean animals. So they call the Romans. The Roman soldiers, dogs, the dogs have surrounded me. The ban of evil doers have encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet again a thousand years before the invention of crucifixion. They count my bones. None of his bones were broken. This is to fulfill prophecy, that Passover lamb. Remember the instructions that was given in Moses, that the Passover lamb, they were careful when they cooked that lamb out on the 40th day of Nissan and sacrificed that lamb and put the blood on a doorpost. They were careful to bring that lamb in without breaking any of its bones. None of the bones of Jesus were broken. When they wanted to hurry up, and when the Romans wanted to hurry up and finish, and this was Passover, they had to finish his crucifixion that day. What they would do, it would break the legs, and the legs would, at that point, the criminal would not be able to push themselves back up on the cross, and they would die of suffocation. Jesus would give up his spirit. He would voluntarily give up his spirit to God, so he was already dead, and none of his bones would be broken. So they pierced my hands and my feet, I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. Jesus is on the crucifixion, they were naked, they were humiliated, they were completely naked on the cross. There was nothing to cover up. No loin cloth, no nothing. He was completely naked. They divided up my garments among them, and from my clothing, they cast lots. We see that that's what the Romans did was the with the garments. We read that back in Matthew. Matthew 2735, and when they had crucified him, they divided up his garments among themselves, casting lots, sitting down, and they began to keep watch over him there. So I'm 22-19. But you, O Lord, once again, coming back to the Lord and praying, but you, O Lord, taking his eyes off the world, be not far off. O you, my help hasten to my assistance, deliver my soul from the sword, and my only life and the power of the dog, save me from the lion's mouth, and the horns of the wild oxen you answer me. And I will tell of your name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you, you who fear the Lord, praise him, all you descendants of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel. For he has not despised, O Lord, the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him, but when he cried to him for help, he heard. And that's where we'll close it out today, and this will be our help, and the basis of our faith is the basis of Christ's faith. He demonstrated the suffering that, and he took that suffering, he took suffering all the way to his furthest degree, and there was, he sacrificed everything, all of it. His whole self was poured out as a drink offering, and he is a pattern of how we are to keep focused on the Lord, and our prayers, and our looking for deliverance, he prayed for deliverance here, and he's going to receive it. The basis of our faith, what is the basis of our faith? It's based on something, ladies and gentlemen, it is based upon the resurrection, because he was delivered, and that becomes our hope. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning, fellowshiping in the Word, and we pray heavenly Father, that open up our hearts to these truths. Let us examine our own hearts and where our faith lies. If it lies in anything but the resurrected Christ, reveal that to us, that we might repent and turn our attention to thee. There are those that are suffering, heavenly Father, help us to help those who are suffering greatly, and when any of us come in this suffering, help us to keep our eyes focused upon thee. That we might not lose track, that we might not lose hope, knowing that on the other end of that suffering, there is glory. Though he slay me, I will continue to trust in him. Thank you, heavenly Father, for your hope, your faith, your love, your grace, your mercy. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, another fine day in the Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith, Lord, will, and spirit shine, wrap your penny. We'll be back here in the end. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence]